Gay Couple Gets Engaged At Burning Man 2013

By

On Top Magazine Staff

|
September 12, 2013

A gay couple got engaged at Burning Man 2013, the annual art,
music and self-expression festival held in the Nevada desert.

Derek proposed marriage to Robert on a mobile performance stage
anchored to a pickup truck. Before the proposal, dozens of their
friends on the ground performed to Rihanna's Where Have You Been.
Robert answered “yes” as the truck's speakers blared Frank
Sinatra's Strangers in the Night. (The video is embedded on
this page. Visit
our video library for more videos.)

“We met at the Lavender Lounge in Nectar Village on August 28,
2012,” Derek said.

“I went up to him, with his best friend fawning all over him,
and said 'I really like your Speedo.' We spent some time flirting in
the posh tent. He writes his camp's info on my skirt along with info
that they are hosting a prom on Thursday night. I revisit his camp
later that day, finding one of his campmate friends in a dust storm,
leaving a note on purple construction paper – we still have the
note – with detailed instructions of where I'll be and when that
day, so we can meet up again.”

“The last timeslot I left open to come see me was at the
GlamCocks sunset party. I headed over there after hanging with a
friend, and he jumps out of nowhere, wearing tight red pants, a red
cape, Christmas lights as a belt, and glow-in-the-dark body paint.
Everything was history from there. We spent the week courting each
other, falling in love, dating on the playa, and on the night of the
man burning, he says 'I think I've fallen in love with you this
week,' and I immediately agreed.”

Soon after last year's festival, Robert moved from Los Angeles to
San Francisco to be with Derek.